Question

to study the impact of noise pollution, scientists introduced a source of artificial noise pollution to certain bird communities. they counted the daily number of egg and chick survivors in the nests of birds in the treated community and similar communities without the noise pollution. the table below reports the number of daily egg and chick survivors and the daily number of eggs and chicks taken from nests by predators.

	treated with artificial noise	untreated
rate of daily nest predation	moderate	high

based on the data, was the noise pollution a benefit or a harm for predators of these birds?

choose 1 answer:

a a harm, because nest predation was higher in areas treated with noise pollution than in untreated areas.

b a harm, because nest predation was lower in areas treated with noise pollution than in untreated areas.

c a benefit, because nest predation was higher in areas treated with noise pollution than in untreated areas.

d a benefit, because nest predation was lower in areas treated with noise pollution than in untreated areas.

Explanation:

The table shows that the rate of daily nest predation is moderate in areas treated with artificial noise and high in untreated areas. Lower predation rates in treated areas mean less success for predators. So noise pollution is a harm to predators.

Answer:

B. A harm, because nest predation was lower in areas treated with noise pollution than in untreated areas.